4 THE SACRIFICE OF CONTINUAL PRAISE. pleased to animate and inspire onr minds and hearts with fortitude, courage, and resolution, sufficient for the great trial of civil war into which wc have been brought, by our adherence as a nation to the cause of freedom and humanity, and to afford to us reasonable hopes of an ultimate and happy deliverance from all our dangers and afflictions. Now therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next, as a day which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens, wherever they may then be, as a day of thanksgiving and prayer to Almighty God, the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the universe; and I do further recommend to my fellow-citizons aforesaid, that on that occasion they do reverently humble themselves in the dust, and from thence offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the Great Disposer of events for a return of the inestimable blessings of peace, union, and harmony throughout the land which it has pleased him to assign as a dwelling-place for ourselves and our posterity throughout all generations. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington, this 20th day of October, in the year of our Lord 1864, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth. Abraham Lincoln. By the President: Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State. The spirit of the text and the spirit of this proclamation are the same. The text enjoing the duty of continual praise to God, at all times and under all circumstances; the proclamation utters words of praise, and calls upon the people to acknowledge the Divine hand in the midst of National calamity. In “such a time as this" such words as these are eminently proper. It is true, we do not come to the celebration of our
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